Outside of ethic minority restaurants, the employment of immigrant labour is most visible in hospitals and residential care homes where foreign nurses, doctors and cleaners are widely used to overcome staff shortages.

According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council some 65,000 nurses and midwives, representing about 10 per cent of its register, were foreign, making "a huge contribution to healthcare in the UK", says Sarah Thewlis, NMC chief executive.